The Mayhew Animal Home made a public appeal to locate the family of a kitten who happened to survive a 150 foot fall down an underground electric services pipe.
She arrived at the Mayhew Animal Home for care. She was brought to this organization after being found stuck down an electricity pipe, which runs for three miles from Hackney to St John’s Wood in the North of London, UK.
This brave little wee one was rescued by maintenance men by the Old Sorting Office in NW8. Luckily for the cat, the pipe was not live with electricity as it was undergoing maintenance at the time of the fall. The men were working on the electricity pipe and had reached 45 metres – nearly 150 feet – underground when they heard the kitten meowing. The men looked for the source of the meows and managed to find the kitten, lifting it out to safety, whereupon they contacted Mayhew to take the kitten in to be looked after until her family might be located.
An Animal Welfare officer by the name of Tania said: “We are appealing to find the kitten’s owners. We picked Billie (as she was being called) up after the workmen called us. The guys were there doing electrical works underground and heard Billie meowing from one of the electric tunnels which was 45 metres down. The kitten was in good condition, I think it was down there for about a day and is very friendly and loves a cuddle.”
After being sent to The Mayhew Animal Home, the kitten did receive a lot of love and attention to help her to recover from the nightmare of the fall. Her caregivers desperately wanted to reunite the adorable kitten with her family, but weren’t able to guess how long she’d been missing or if anyone was still searching for her. They also weren’t sure where, along a three mile stretch, she managed to get into the piping system.
Mayhew made their appeal to find kitty’s family on October 14, and on the 21st they announced the family had been found and she was back at home. 6-month old Sass, which is her real name, was reunited with Patrick Costelloe at Mayhew after Patrick searched for the wee one online.
Delighted to be re-united with his pet, he said, “I’m just so happy to see her. She disappeared for about ten days and I was so worried. The pipe is just across from us so she must have wandered off and got in there somehow. I can’t believe how far down she went and that there would be so much interest in her. I searched for her on lots of cat websites until I tracked her down and came to get her at The Mayhew. The first thing I am going to do is get her back to her mum Suzuki.”
Sass lives in the Camden area of London with Patrick and her mum Suzuki, meaning that this pioneer of a little kitten walked for about 2 miles down the electricity pipe before she was discovered. That’s a long trek for one little kitten.
Mayhew’s Animal Welfare Officers suspect little Sass was stuck down the electric pipe for about 24 hours until she was found. She had a lucky escape from her adventure. Thankfully, the electric was not live during the maintenance.
Animal Welfare Officer, Tania Mazzoni, said, “She had a very lucky escape because if the electricity had been live she would not be here today.”
During her stay at The Mayhew, staff and volunteers kept Sass comfortable, while working hard to find her rightful owners. She had not microchipped.
Tania added, “This story also demonstrates the importance of microchipping. We could have reunited her straight away with her owner if she had been chipped.”
With Patrick’s approval, Sass was microchipped at the Mayhew’s Vet Clinic before she was cleared to be released.
Patrick said, “It’s great she’s been microchipped and we can easily find her if she does it again. I’m so grateful to The Mayhew and have made a donation to say thanks.”
